THE COBE DIRBE POINT SOURCE CATALOG AND DIRBE LIGHT CURVES OF
VARIABLE STARS

The COBE DIRBE Point Source Catalog is based on data from the
Diffuse Infrared
Background Experiment (DIRBE) instrument on the
Cosmic Background Explorer (COBE)
Satellite.
This Catalog is an all-sky catalog containing
infrared photometry in 10 bands from 1.25 microns to 240 microns for 11,788 of
the brightest near and mid-infrared point sources in the sky. Since DIRBE had
excellent temporal coverage (100 - 1900 independent measurements per object
during the 10 month cryogenic mission), the Catalog also contains information
about variability at each wavelength, including amplitudes of variation
observed during the mission. Since the DIRBE spatial resolution is relatively
poor (0.7 degrees), we have carefully investigated the question of confusion,
and have flagged sources with infrared-bright companions within the DIRBE beam.
In addition, we filtered the DIRBE light curves for data points affected by
companions outside of the main DIRBE beam but within the `sky' portion of the
scan. At high Galactic latitudes (|b| > 5 degrees), the Catalog contains
essentially all of the unconfused sources with flux densities greater than 90,
60, 60, 50, 90, and 165 Jy at 1.25, 2.2, 3.5, 4.9, 12, and 25 microns,
respectively, corresponding to magnitude limits of approximately 3.1, 2.6, 1.7,
1.3, -1.3, and -3.5. At longer wavelengths and in the Galactic Plane, the
completeness is less certain because of the large DIRBE beam and possible
contributions from extended emission. The Catalog also contains the names of
the sources in other catalogs, their spectral types, variability types, and
whether or not the sources are known OH/IR stars.

To search the DIRBE Point Source Catalog on-line using
Vizier, click
here.
In Vizier, select `COBE' from the `Mission' column and `Find Catalogues.'
Then select `DIRBE Photometry and Variability' and 'Query selected Tables'.
The 2MASS/IRAS/MSX photometry, the companion information, and the
DIRBE Catalog associations are also available.